The present invention relates to tethers for closures, such as caps or other closures (e.g., fuel caps), that close openings in containers.
Tethers are commonly affixed to a portion of a cap and are coupled to a portion of the container to retain the cap in connection with the container even when the cap is removed from engagement with the container opening. Internal style tethers are affixed to an interior side of a cap and retain the cap with the container by extending into and engaging with an interior of the container.
Known internal style tethers can include flexible barbs that enable easy assembly into a container opening, but suffer from extremely limited resistance to being pulled back out of the opening. Some internal tethers include a rope or chain member coupling a plurality of barbs to the cap. The rope or chain member can make it particularly difficult to initially install the tether into a container opening, especially when the opening has an extended length, since the rope or chain member does not facilitate pushing the barbs through the opening. Rope or chain type connectors also preclude effective bulk packaging, since the rope or chain connectors can easily become tangled.